now that we're out of amaretto...

[cimorene]

I mentioned that we cleaned out my MIL's deep freeze from her cottage a week ago. The contents just barely fit into our fridge, and we had to thaw two things right away that wouldn't fit.

We made some amaretto milkshakes to use up the old and already-open containers of icecream, but we discovered that they were so delicious that we quickly ran out of amaretto and had to buy more pistachio icecream for the tastiest flavor. Obviously we can get more amaretto, but in the meantime we also have MIL's rather large stash of booze, so we decided to try a few things:

• I'd never tasted whisky before. My parents made cocktails, and they let me have them, but just a few that they particularly liked, and I was never particularly fond of alcohol in general. Nobody ever put whisky in front of me and offered it to me, so I never tried it. But given its cultural weight, I wanted to, so we made brown derbies (from a YouTube video of easy classic whisky cocktails) the other day. Wax ended up drinking them both because it was disgusting. I suppose I still need to taste it with just soda water or whatever, but I'm not a fan.



• After we ran out of amaretto we were looking for a new liquor to put into an icecream milkshake, and last night's coconut icecream (which is kind of gross by itself as icecream for some reason - it has a weird aftertaste; the balance of flavors just isn't right) seemed like it wouldn't go with the coffee liquer, so we put in some cognac. That was also disgusting and Wax also ended up drinking the whole milkshake (but it only had 40 cls in it, so unlike with the brown derby incident, she didn't get drunk). I also still intend to taste cognac by itself, but again, definitely not a fan.



• There's a bottle of forest berry liquer that we're curious about as well, but we'll have to find something other than pistachio and coffee to go with it. Maybe like a chocolate cake?



• There's half a bottle of Southern Comfort, but given that's also whisky I'm inclined to doubt that I will find it at all palatable.



• There was a bottle of Valamo berry wine. That was the first thing we tried. It's hella weird, and it has a VERY STRONG BERRYness, but it was actually ultimately delicious and we would definitely buy more if you didn't have to go to the monastery to buy it.



• There's a second bottle of gin, a different kind from the one we already had. I like gin cocktails, so this is fine, we just need more fizzy water.



• Two bottles of punch... which is apparently a thing you buy in bottles in Sweden and Finland. I sideeye.



• An unopened bottle of limoncello. What even. No ideas there.

Comments

[jain]

I also dislike the taste of whisky, but I was given a bottle and had to figure out how to drink it. Turns out that I find it surprisingly palatable in ginger ale. You can definitely still taste the smokiness of the whisky, but the smokiness works much better for me in combination with a sweet ginger flavor.

[james]

If you don't like whiskey, there's no reason to force yourself to learn to like it. That said, I'd suggest taking a small sip of it without anything else in it. If you don't like it, then putting other things in it won't really change the essence of the whiskey.

(I love whiskey, and I like putting a jigger or two of it in root beer, myself.)

Conversely I don't like vodka or gin at all, no matter what they do to it.

[cimorene]

Good idea. If I don't like it alone, it'll just be the same but weaker with fizzy water.

[isilya]

I have used Southern Comfort in place of amaretto when making tiramisu... it’s very sweet and good with milk, would probably be good in your pistachio milkshake!

[cimorene]

Oh, fascinating! We'll give it a try then.

[isilya]

For the cognac— does Wax still hate garlic? If not, mushrooms or chicken sautéed in butter, garlic, and cognac are delicious (+/- cream). Cognac is also good in sangria or tiramisu or anywhere brandy is used- brandy snaps, brandy butter, brandy custard etc etc.

[cimorene]

She doesn't like garlic, but she doesn't hate it cooked into food as long as it's not a strong garlic-forward food. The problem is cooking with fresh garlic leaves the aroma in the kitchen. She'll eat stuff made with it out of the house, but I usually cook with garlic powder instead (and reduced amounts of it) to avoid tripping her up.

But trying it with mushrooms is a great idea - we love sauteed mushroom dishes.

[isilya]

It’s funny, just yesterday I tried an apple cider I didn’t like so I thought “oh, I’ll just save that to use in Wax’s apple cider chicken recipe”.

So funny that 17 years later you’re still in my life like that!

[cimorene]

We're planning to make that on Thursday! We ordered an extra-cheap cider from the package store specially for it last week.

[zana16]

I agree that whisky is foul. Limoncello is great all by itself, usually as an after dinner drink.

[princessofgeeks]

Limoncello is lovely mixed with vodka and tonic.

Or you can make a syrupy glaze out of it for pound cake or something like.

[princessofgeeks]

If I were closer I could take the whisky off your hands.

Whiskies are all very different. Southern Comfort is very different from whatever you made the brown derby with.

BTW I like whiskey in many forms, especially bourbon, and I loathe brown derbies. Also manhattan's.

Just a data point.

[cimorene]

I think it was Jack Daniels. I like all the citrus cocktails I've had up till now, and I like citrus most of the time without liquor too, so it seemed like a good choice! But of course, if the flavors are inherently clashing, it could be the opposite.

[stranger]

Limoncello goes well with gin drinks, can be added to gin-and-tonic or incorporated into a Tom Collins, and so on.

I don't like whiskies much, but it's worth trying them neat, one sip at a time, to see if the flavors and after-flavors make you go hmmm instead of ick.

[spark]

I like whiskey sours and hot toddies. Whiskey and lime or lemon goes well but grapefruit (as per the derby recipe) seems like it would be a clash of harsh flavours rather than complementary, never tried it though. If you don't like any kind of whiskey drink, you can always do bread pudding with whiskey sauce which is fantastic.

[cimorene]

I always thought bread pudding was a pudding, but I've just googled it and the images seem to show a bread or cake texture instead so now I'm going to have to research that. I've never had it, or made it obviously...

[which_chick]

Limoncello is nice sipped on a hot summer night after dinner, hopefully outside. It's tasty if you like citrus things. SoCo is a whiskey-and-spices flavored alcoholic beverage with sweetener. It's a whiskey in much the same way that pasteurized processed cheese food slices are... cheese. That said, many people find it quite drinkable.